earlier that the country wants to switch to a supporting and a training role for local forces before the end of next year or correspondent and author eric margolis thinks the upcoming election in the us may be the main motive for the decision first of all pressure from other this year's elections poll shows sixty percent of american voters are fed up with the war in afghanistan or against that the price is approaching true dollars a time when washington's very hard of cash is cutting budgets and obama wants to leander john now regretting party member he was a piece presidency brownies and repeats tonight in states and this is a very important step he wasn't drawn to a smaller number of fortified places and the drone attacks will conduct special forces raids it's not over yet understand what's going to have the eighty thousand us paid mercenaries who are in afghanistan remains uncertain. and

as the u.s. presidential campaign heats up our debate show cross-talk takes a look at which republicans may choosing to face off with barack obama. to have a debate with the president on the health care reform bill it's going to be laughable because the bill that the president signed into law was based almost entirely on the bill that mitt romney signed into law in massachusetts. you're right he's not even going to be able to make that argument and the question earlier is is he conservative enough i mean how could anyone call him a conservative when he himself has called himself a moderate the real deal here is the republican party is trying to get the conservative grassroots to support the guy who lost to the guy who lost to obama and so there's this endless cycle of you know it's your turn that's being shoved down the grassroots throat he's been running for five years he already has

organization set up in all the states plus the backing of goldman sachs and the republican establishment and the guy still can't break fifty percent i don't think he would do well in the general. coming your way about ten minutes here on our t.v. . we turn now to some other stories making headlines across the globe at least thirty seven people have been killed in a shootout between rival police forces in south sudan dozens more have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds fighting erupted during a peace meeting to resolve local disputes about stolen cattle south sudan which declared independence last year is plagued with ethnic tension violent cattle raids and rebel attacks. cambodia supreme court has said it's the committee is chief jailer you know it is comrade to life in prison for a crime committed during while he ran a notorious prison facility appeal judges rejected the man's claim that he was just following orders while he oversaw the torture and execution of what than twelve

thousand victims he was already serving a thirty five year prison sentence for crimes against humanity. rescue teams are continuing to battle heavy seas and strong winds to search for survivors after a ferry sank off papua new guinea with three hundred fifty passengers and crew aboard almost two hundred fifty have been plucked from the sea but many remain missing the ship's operator said the vessel sent a distress call thursday but then all contact was cut off most of the passengers were college students and teachers in training. and a cold snap has already claimed one hundred sixty four lives in eastern europe is countries struggle with a record low temperatures and heavy snowfall led to widespread transport chaos and power outages the extreme cold even caused the black sea to freeze off the ukrainian coast in that country alone more than one hundred people have died after temperatures plummeted to minus thirty celsius most of the victims were homeless

people. coming up later join the moscow out team on the hunt for new ways to spend your time and beat the winter freeze while staying indoors. good morning everybody. exploring the popular subject. from board games to extreme sports the cold weather. here but why the mosque well that's because i'm here. in the center of moscow where the. game.

coming your way in the next hour here on r t but first business news next with dmitri. and welcome to the european union is reporting a fall in russian gas supplies for the first straight day the exceptionally cold weather is putting strains on supply from siberia to cornwall. bushell out in the freezing night. what we do know is that e.u. energy commission or good to gazprom did warn of potential shortages and for the last three days several states from the likes of poland to italy and austria said there have been caught no there has been increasingly cold weather in europe so that means that the more and has risen but those countries have got reserves for such a contingency the european or g. companies have not complained yet officially which means it goes from says it's not making a statement because it's received no complaint previously gazprom says that it may

preference russian consumers which is also suffering russia is also suffering from fairly cold weather at the moment but ukraine and russia have accused of being behind these calls but it is not really become clear what the real reason for these cuts is at the moment and we do expect this issue to toilet over where near the called received so more and more do turns to normal market watchers expect the darkness of eurozone debt problems to get some light suit ratings agency standard and poor's expects the housing union to gradually climb out of its mild recession in the second half of this year and into twenty thirty the firm said chief european economist designer michelle c. explained. the risks of the more severe recession. that could go into twenty thirteen are significant we estimate about forty percent probability yet i think we have to look at all the factors there has been some and poor edging

ever upwards inside the year was own and outside the eurozone what we expect is at the moment from emerging markets particularly. asia to strengthen again in the second half of the and that should be supportive of a very gradual recovery in the euro zone we also expect that investors' confidence will gradually come back as they do up here in central bank continues to provide ample liquidity to the banking sector in the euro zone. but not everyone agrees saxo bank is predicting an economic apocalypse with european equity markets losing a quarter of their value this year we asked the author of the best seller extreme money such as dos which scenario seems more likely to him. well i think the best way to describe the s. and p. report is whatever they're smoking i'd like to have some as far as the sex of bank

report goes i think they are believers in the mayan calendar which believes that the world will end in two thousand and twelve but i think the major thing is that when you look at the situation there is no way that europe is going to have a small recession it's going to have a long recession because the government spending will have to be cut and that has been the major stimulus which kept these economies growing the second thing is the banking system in most of these countries is not creating any credit will not be able to create its technically if you are honest about it there are marginally solve them to bits and we still have not resolved the debt issue and the real question is what will happen to portugal what will happen to spain what will happen to italy and there is absolutely no result on the part of the european leadership and the european economic community because there is really no easy solution. and the russian markets so i ended friday's session with gains marking the full full session in a row up to the point from the u.s.

where the economy added two hundred forty three thousand jobs in january and twice what was expected and that will be unemployment rate to eight point three percent in the u.s. . if we look at the market movers on the my sex partners gold surge the most in three years media reports it's a london listed parent will make a buyout offer of course that is also strong you will giants as opposed to the twenty percent increase in net profits for twenty eleven which is beating forecasts that's all for now the headlines are next on r.t. to stay with us.

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the close up team has been through the whole bar of screeching for the country's middle wealth starts its way across the ocean. if now our team goes to the area. was named after lenin but looking to a different character to represent itself. for local businesses are striving to build the aviation capital of russia. the for the four by fours are made and can be tested to the limit if welcome to the illyana screech of. russia close up on r t. the so.

a lot of thirty pm in moscow these iraqi headlines volleys of tear gas have been launched into crowds of protesters in egypt this is live video you're looking at the crowds gathered in tahrir square people have rallied for a third day with reports of at least four killed protests against the military rulers broke out after wednesday's football violence that left seventy four day. moscow says it cannot suborder new draft resolution on syria you were part of the text had been softened to overcome some of russia's objections it's still fall

short of addressing moscow's main concern. and all the polling stations across russia will digital cameras are installed on the orders of the prime minister was introduced by vladimir putin as a step toward stopping electoral fraud the next month's presidential vote. russia is not the only country choosing a leader this year up next peter lavelle and guess discuss the race for the white house in the upcoming u.s. presidential election crosstalk coming your way.

lowing welcome across all computable times the u.s. presidential campaign become a horse race pitting incumbent barack obama against republican mitt romney if this is really the case what are romney's chances in november obama may not be a president of substance but few doubt his ability to campaign and maybe even when . you. cross out the u.s. presidential race i'm joined by john mchenry in washington he's a partner and vice president of ayres mchenry and associates also in washington we have doug there now is a senior vice president at s.k.t. knickerbocker and in dallas we cross the katrina pierson she is the executive director at watch the vote dot org and a board member at the dallas tea party all right crosstalk rules in effect folks that means you can jump in anytime you want between if i go to you first i mean after florida we have mitt romney again for the fourth time seen as the frontrunner

for the republican nomination is going to stay that way. i don't think it's going to stay that way actually and what we're experiencing is this huge up and down the road coaster. you know newt gingrich is receiving endorsements rick santorum is receiving endorsements i think this race is going to stay divided for quite some time i do see this going all the way the convention as it should does what do you think about that i mean there is mitt romney got the big mo is he going to be able to sustain this. well right now he clearly does but i think the next month and it's going to be a challenging month for the other candidates because there's only one debate and we enter into the next contests three out of four of them are caucuses so you could you could see a situation was situation where someone like a ron paul who has a good organization does well and these are states that mitt romney did well in. four years ago but you know katrina is right only five percent of the delegates have been allocated were

a long way from this being finished and i think if there's anything that we can you know that that this contest has shown us is you know anything can happen and you don't count i don't think you can count newt gingrich out at any point he just kind of has you know he just keeps coming back to life ok it's interesting john if i can go to you i mean mitt romney has a lot of money he has a good war chest and newt gingrich is struggled in getting money but he's you surprised that sometimes is money going to be the be all important factor in this election for the for the republican nomination or as our other guests have said it could go either way still. well mitt certainly the favorite at this point partly because of the money and also partly because of the organization that he has he also has a very favorable schedule he's you know like a football team that has a bunch of patsies waiting in front of them he's got nevada which he did very well and four years ago that has a high mormon population that we would expect him to win and he's looking at

michigan this month which is a state that his father was governor of and he's got the organization to do well in some of these caucus states ron paul obviously will target the caucus states and try to do well in those but you know as the other guests have said anything can happen this year the last thing you want to do is go out and try to predict this but mitt certainly has a lot of momentum heading into these february contests between for your political to. run the conservative enough for you. no absolutely not i don't even consider romney a conservative i consider him a moderate slash liberal who is running as a conservative which many tea party people have experienced in two thousand and ten and here's the problem that romney is going to face that he's never even grass any of the grassroots movement out there he has shunned that movement the republican party in some areas have shunned that movement and unfortunately for him that's the movement that gets the vote out ok i mean that's one of the interesting things is

that when we look at the demographics of all of it romney it's still very problematic i mean he's mormon in a lot of evangelical christians don't i would say agree with his outlook is really religious outlook and in the katrina is absolutely right in many ways i mean the grassroots you know that's where the the the voters are is he is he's strong enough with his credentials and he's well documented flip flops will talk about the november election if he gets the nomination i mean what is it i mean what is his attraction and remember we have an international audience here what is the attraction that republicans have with mitt romney because personally i watch him and he looks like a piece of cardboard. yeah it looks like something out of central casting right and the reason why he's doing well and you know john knows this probably better than anyone he's a pollster but you know in the polls right now they're showing that he's the one that republicans believe can be you know is their best chance to be president and that's the top criteria for a lot of the primary voters but once you get below that when you compare mitt

romney to the other candidates on leadership qualities on some character issues views on issues as katrina pointed out and so you know conservatives are very concerned about his past flip flops you know he's very thin and i think for democrats heading into a general election you know we feel like we can contrast very well with the president and the president and mitt romney has taken different positions on health care on taxes on gay marriage i mean it goes all the way down the list and for voters in uncertain times i think they want someone they think is going to shoot straight with them and the other thing i'd point out is this long primary so far is really hurt him polls have shown recently with independents in his favor ability numbers have dropped quite a bit with that key voting bloc and the overall electorate as well so mitt while winning florida has taken some serious damage and some serious incoming to his

overall standing with the electorate that's not something he can be rehabilitated but it's going to be hard for him ok john i'll this show my political tasted opinions ok and everyone can disagree with me if you want it's not even germane to the debate here but i mean he's doing well because the rest of the people running the other contenders the republican parties are borderline before. that might be a little bit harsh. but you tapped into something important us katrina is romney conservative enough and he may not be conservative enough for her but he is conservative enough for most of the republican primary voters in the sense that the appeal he has whether he looks like cardboard an out of central casting he seems like the safest choice and republicans see this year as vitally important you know that the evangelicals you talked about with the mormon faith and questioning that they see the fate of the free world riding on beating president obama in the fall

you know it's vitally important to them to override the health care law that was passed in two thousand and ten and they will do they will nominate whomever they think gives them the best chance to do that and mitt romney despite his flaws. do going to jump in. now i was just going to say that something that romney's can't do and he won't do i mean he's think about the health care bill do you can do you can you know debate whether you like it or not but for mitt romney to have a debate with the president on the health care reform bill it's going to be laughable because the bill that the president signed into law was based almost entirely on the bill that mitt romney signed into law in massachusetts the individual mandate was in exchange and slowly or i think he's not going to be able to make katrina jump and. you're right he's not even going to be able to make that argument and the question earlier is is a conservative enough i mean how could anyone call him a conservative when he himself has called himself a moderate the real deal here is the republicans are trying to get the conservative

grassroots to support the guy who lost to the guy who lost to obama and so there's this endless cycle of you know it's your turn that's being shoved down the grassroots throat he's been running for five years he already has organization set up in all the states plus the backing of goldman sachs and the republican establishment and the guy still can't break fifty percent i don't think he would do well in the general ok john if you for the for the sake of the perfectly positioned he's perfectly positioned to be a general election candidate though because he is a little bit more centrist now maybe that's not my flavor maybe that's not katrina's flavor but he is better positioned. to a lot of republican primary voters as the man who they think they can trust to run the campaign as rick santorum said in the debate about a week and a half ago you're not going to go out and pick up the newspaper and say what new do today you know mitt romney's not going to go out and say i think we ought to

establish the fifty first state on the moon and let's have a moon colony with thirteen thousand people there so that's the thing that you know john you know this. is. i was just going to say the one thing that i've noticed in the last month or so is that mitt romney has not been as stable of a candidate as i think people had predicted you know he has made a number of verbal gaffes he was totally unprepared to release his tax returns he was called blindsided by his you know by explaining his experience at bain capital you can say what you want about that but his campaign wasn't prepared for it his campaign wasn't prepared for south carolina and the wapping in the in the defeat he took there from newt gingrich you know he lost iowa so if you look and if you look at jen and if you look at the current national polling in the republican primary. mitt romney is only up by four or five points on newt gingrich so you know the idea

it's i think there is a chattering class inside of washington that wants to shut this thing down very quickly they don't think it's a they don't want to they don't want to go on much longer we are sensing that there's a lot of damage that's being done to romney but overall i mean i think if you look if you listen to katrina the grassroots doesn't want to shut it down right now let's listen to good training here because we should let me let me go to training or should new drop out for the sake of the republican party or stay in to actually give romney. given it's a test for him because you know debating with and newt is hilarious ok because you never know what he's going to say and you sharpen your skills that way which way would you go newt go. oh i say new it stays in all the way to the convention what people don't understand is this is not a fight for our country against barack obama this is a fight for our country against the people versus the establishment elites and you see that when you have to drop eighteen million dollars into a state just to try to change public opinion of a different candidate and set of propping your own self up and i'll give you

another couple of examples that most republicans don't want to admit that mitt romney is going to have to deal with in the general and it is a simple fact that he is the poster child for the one percent in this country and judging by his latest gaffe yesterday about not worrying about the poor people that will haunt him in the general ok john you want to real quick before the break. well we've got a couple issues in there to talk about but the part about whether we should continue on for a couple more weeks a couple more days you know all the way to the convention before yesterday's gaffe i think it was pretty easy to say that mitt romney has been a much better candidate because of the hardening of the debates the fact that he really had to fight for to show that he really wanted to stand up to new push back on them a little bit he's really been a much more candid john i'm going to germany and we're going to the short break and after that short break we'll continue our discussion on the u.s. presidential campaign state.

old means of protection can be used. when global supremacy. between two thousand and five and two thousand and nine the u.s. has spent fifteen billion dollars in the price paid for the entire program that we are dealing with right now here in two thousand and eleven is another hundred fifty billion dollars that's larger than many country's entire military budgets twenty oftens becomes the best form of france.

download the official allocation to your i pod touch from the i.q. zaps to. life on the go. video on demand. an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your lives. dot com. and. live welcome back to cross talk i'm getting bell to remind you we're talking about the november face off. in a. live. ok katrina let's talk about the

general election here let's assume on this program for the time being and i agree with you we've seen a roller coaster with this this campaign and with the republicans but let's assume that romney is the nominee ok number one well the demo the republicans come out and droves to go vote for him even if they don't like him too much he's with your taste he's not conservative enough and if he's strong enough to beat barack obama what do you think. well i'm not sure right now if the election were today it's possible but i think with mitt's recent behavior in the debates towards conservatives it's probably going to turn some people off we do have contended senate and congressional races out there it's been the chatter that i hear that people if mitt romney becomes the nominee they will go and support those other races so i'm not so sure he would get help in that side and if he did become the nominee we have to look at what are the differences between mitt romney and barack obama with the exception of brock wants to reform wall street and mitt romney wants to prop up wall street other than that they both support tarp they both support stimulus they

both believe a manmade global warming they both agree and a timetable of troops withdrawal i mean i'm trying to figure out if i'm out there and i'm trying to figure out who to vote for next want to vote for the guy whom i already know and what he's going to do or do i vote for a guy that's going to come in into a world where everything is in chaos civil unrest in countries all over the bashar al assad instead it is about to explode and do i really want someone in there with on the job training especially if the economy is taking up since mitt romney's one big trick pony issue is the economy who would i support and the question is i simply don't know how to cue a very interesting what if what about you i mean there is this is going to say is very very interesting that the similarities between the two candidates is that but at the same time barack obama if this is the case and i think it's good in their own.